Dusted

Statement:

“The natural elements of prosperity seem concentrated in profusion seldom found. In our primitive simplicity we reasoned that if we could take ores from the mountains and reduce them to gold and silver with which to pay for labor and purchase the productions of the valleys, a community could be established in the country independent of foreign resources. The result will show the success or failure of this Utopian scheme.”

– Charles D. Poston, Building a State in Apache Land 1878

Beneath the chopped toxic mountains of the rural Southwest United States the spirit of Manifest destiny is continued within the ever-expanding mining industry. This paradoxical idea of divine conquest has been perpetually pursued within America as these companies take land, deplete resources, shutter, and move on. Although this cyclical process is destructive to nature and devastating the communities that have grown to service these mines, nothing is given back when the ore is gone and the cost outweighs the profit.

In Dusted, I look to convey this complex history of mining by addressing the whitewashed narrative of America’s history; a version too often presented in history books and museums. Through research in the history and in the field, I found these narratives of history tend to only show glory and not the failures of the past, and by doing so this history continues the exploitation of the present. In utilizing historical writings, reenacted history and showing the true destructive nature that persists within the giant open pits that pepper the landscape, I look to reveal what was left in the wake of false promises and hopes.

All photographs created over 2019-current